work-on-issue

A workflow for starting work on a GitHub issue, a tracked request or bug in a software repository. It extracts requirements, creates an isolated worktree, and sets up test-driven development, where tests are written before the code.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to begin focused work on an issue, identify acceptance criteria and edge cases, create a worktree, and activate a TDD workflow.
Why use it?
It turns an issue description into concrete requirements and a separated development workspace, reducing the chance of making unrelated repository changes.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/huggingface/openenv/work-on-issue
Any agent
npx skills add huggingface/OpenEnv --skill work-on-issue
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/huggingface/OpenEnv

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 27 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 787 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00027 $0.00787
Opus 5 $0.00014 $0.00394
Sonnet 5 $0.00005 $0.00157
Haiku 4.5 $0.00003 $0.00079

Measured 2d ago against content hash 12ac3d5a425d, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

work-on-issue scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

.claude/skills/work-on-issue/SKILL.md · 121 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 121 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

/work-on-issue

Start focused work on a GitHub issue using TDD workflow.

EXECUTE THESE STEPS NOW

When this skill is invoked, you MUST execute these steps immediately. Do NOT just describe what will happen - actually do it.

Step 1: Parse Issue Number

Extract the issue number from $ARGUMENTS:

  • Remove # prefix if present
  • The issue number is: $ARGUMENTS

Step 2: Spawn Issue Worker Agent

Use the Task tool to spawn the issue-worker agent:

Task tool:
  subagent_type: issue-worker
  prompt: "Read GitHub issue #<NUMBER> and extract:
    1. Goal - what the user wants to achieve
    2. Acceptance criteria - specific testable requirements
    3. Edge cases and constraints
    4. Suggested PR split if complex"

Wait for the agent to return requirements.

Step 3: Create Worktree

After receiving requirements, run this command:

.claude/scripts/worktree-create.sh issue-<NUMBER>-<short-description>

Where <short-description> is 2-3 words from the goal (e.g., add-mcp-tools).

Step 4: Activate TDD Enforcement

Activate TDD enforcement in the new worktree. This uses tdd-state.sh's direct-execution mode so it works in a single Bash call:

cd .worktrees/issue-<NUMBER>-<short-description> && bash .claude/hooks/tdd-state.sh activate <NUMBER>

This writes .tdd-session.json to the worktree root, which all hooks check. Without this step, hooks would not block direct edits.

Step 5: Create Todos

Use TodoWrite to create a todo for EACH acceptance criterion:

TodoWrite:
  todos:
    - content: "Test: <acceptance criterion 1>"
      status: pending
      activeForm: "Testing <criterion 1>"
    - content: "Test: <acceptance criterion 2>"
      status: pending
      activeForm: "Testing <criterion 2>"
    ...

Step 6: Begin TDD Cycle

Immediately invoke /write-tests for the first todo.

DO NOT stop and wait for user input. Start the TDD cycle now.


When to Use

  • Starting work on a GitHub issue
  • You want TDD enforcement (opt-in via this skill)
  • You want isolated work (no branch switching)

Read the full file on GitHub · 121 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 121 lines · 27 tokens per session scan A 12ac3d5a425d

Subscribe to this mod's changes

work-on-issue is a skill published in the GitHub repository huggingface/OpenEnv (2,531 stars, last pushed 4d ago), licensed BSD-3-Clause. It adds 27 tokens to every session and 787 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

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